The state budget and the taxes that help finance it have a huge impact on children and families. The budget provides most of the funding for vital government services, such as education, health care, transportation, child welfare and other safety net programs.
For more detailed analysis, visit the Wisconsin Budget Project website.
The evidence is clear – frequent school suspensions place youth at greater risk of a host of “rotten outcomes”, not the least of which is involvement in the juvenile or criminal justice system. Noting that this is a nationwide problem, Senator Dick Durbin held a hearing last Wednesday of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the...
The so-called “fiscal cliff” could affect Wisconsinites in innumerable ways. For many of us the immediate effects will be relatively minor, whereas for others – particularly jobless workers who are receiving federal unemployment benefits – there will be an abrupt and very damaging termination of a critical lifeline.Over the past week...
Pressure to direct government funding toward smart, effective initiatives may be why a new type of bond, social impact bonds, are becoming financing options for social programs. Early initiatives using social impact bonds – essentially borrowing funds to pay for savings later – have been used in other areas, but now may be making their...
Today is Human Rights Day, perhaps a good day to reflect on the fact that the United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. Fortunately, more and more conservatives are discovering what progressives (and by the way what juvenile justice advocates have known for along time), that investing in “get tough on crime”...
Another one of the bills advanced by Governor Walker early in the 2011-12 session has suffered a setback in court. As you may have heard by now, a ruling Tuesday by Dane County Circuit Court Judge Amy Smith concluded that the Wisconsin Constitution does not allow the legislature to give the governor power to review and block rules...
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